Railway roadbed tamping and ballasting machine



C. J. DERLER July 30, 1963 RAILWAY ROADBED TAMPING AND BALLASTING MACHINE S Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 7, 1959 IN VEN TOR. g/vr/es J fler/er ATTORNEY July 30, 1963 c. J. DERLER 3,099,225

RAILWAY ROADBED TAMPING AND BALLASTING MACHINE Filed Aug. '7, 1959 I 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 B@MM ATTORNEY C. J. DERLER July 30, 1963 RAILWAY ROADBED TAMPING AND BALLASTING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Aug. '7, 1959 I I I I I I I I! I I I I I lljT f. i

INVENTQR. Char/e5 J fier/e'r ATTORNEY United States 3,099,225 RAILWAY ROADBED TAMPING AND BALLASTING MACHINE Charles J. Derler, Ludington, Mich., assignor to Jackson Vibrators, Inc., Ludington, Mich. Filed Aug. 7, 1959, Ser. No. 832,207 4 Claims. (Cl. 104-12) This invention relates to improvements in tamping or ballasting machines. The main objects of this invention are:

First, to provide a power driven vibratory tamping apparatus for positioning and compacting ballast underneath the ties of a railway, which apparatus is relatively inexpensive structurally and is well adapted tor periodic use in the replacement or tampin-g of ballast as distinguished from equipment for building or substantial rebuilding of railways.

Second, to provide a ballast tamping machine which may be effectively operated and controlled by a single operator for tam-ping the ballast along one rail of a roadbed.

Ihird, to provide a tamping machine having those advantages which may be operated either singly or in tandem by a single operator, one of the machines in such tandem position being disposed in reversed relation to the other, the tampin-g means being operated independently so that one or the other or both may be operated at the same time.

Fourth, to provide a machine having these advantages which is of relatively light weight and may be quite economically produced or manufactured, and one in which the vibratory tamping units are electrically driven, the engine and generator being mounted along one side of the machine so that the main Weight of the machine is cenrtered over the rail under which the ballast is tamped and so that the weight of the machine effectively opposes the force of the vibratory compacting tools while in use.

Fifth, to provide a powered vib-r-atory compacting machine for railroads with an elevating hoist or ram located at the center of gravity of the machine to lift the machine from the rails and permit its beingrotated on the ram to take-off position and lowered onto set'off rails for easily and quickly removing the machine from operating position from the rails or track.

Sixth, to provide a unitary powered tamping machine which may be advanced along a railway by a single operator and accurately positioned to ramp ballast underthe ties along one of the rails.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following description and claims. A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of the machine, parts being shown in perspective.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view also partially in perspective.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view partially in transverse section through the tamper elevating crosshead of the machine and the power means for raising and lowering the crosshead.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the hydraulic connections and controls for the machine and the driving engine and electric generator thereof.

FIG. 5 is a top plan view illustrating two of the machines connected in tandem for operation by a single operator, one of the machines being in reverse position relative to the other, one operating on one rail and the other on the other rail of a railway track.

The embodiment of my invention illustrated comprises a base or platform 1 provided with wheel supporting brackets or hangers 2 on which the rail engaging wheels 3 and 4- are mounted. While the machine may be operated efficiently when shifted in either direction, for convenience in description the end of the machine illustrated in FIG. 1 is referred to as the front end. 'In this embodiment the rail engaging wheel 4 is provided with a sprocket 5 and the chain 6 which extends upwardly therefrom under the guard 7 to the drive sprocket 8 which is driven by a hydraulic motor 9, as will be more particularly described later, to drive or propel the machine along the rails of a railway track. These parts are mainly shown in conventional form.

The bed of the machine includes a relatively narrow forwardly projecting portion 10 on which is mounted a pair of uprights 1111 and a hydraulic cylinder 12 disposed centrally relative to these uprights. The uprights 11 are connected by cross bars 13 and are supported by the rearwardly and downwardly inclined struts or braces 14-. These uprights 11 serve as vertical ways for the crosshead indicated generally by the reference numeral 15 In the embodiment illustrated this crosshead consists of the front and rear channel bars 16 disposed at the tront :and rear of the uprights 11 and connected at their ends by the plates 17.

The tubular slides 18 are disposed between and fixedly secured to the crosshead member 16, these members 18 having flanges 19 at their lower ends 'which are fixedly bolted to the flanges of the crosshead member 16. These tubular slides slid-ably seat the uprights .11 as is illustrated in considerable detail in FIG. 3. The crosshead is supported in its upper or retracted position by the supporting or hanger hook 20 suspended trom the front cross bar 13. This hanger hook 20 is supportedly engageable over the flange of one of the crosshead members 16 and serves to hold the crosshead in its retracted position when the tamping elements of the machine are not in use.

The piston rod 21 projects from the hydraulic cylinder 12 and is provided with a cros-spiece 22, this crosspiece 22 being connected by the links or rods 23 which are in turn connected by the members 24, see FIG. 1, to the cross- 7 head bearing sleeves 18 so that the crosshead is actuated for upward and downward movement by controlling the cylinder 12. Projecting transversely of and oppositely from the plates 17 on the crosshead are arms 25, preferably tubular, braces or gussets 26 being provided for these arms. These arms are provided at their outer ends with brackets 27 which, in the embodiment illustrated, are of I-beam cross section and to which the one-quarter elliptical springs 28 and 29 are secured in vertically spaced relation by means of clamps.

The springs on the outer of the arms 25, that is, outer relation to the platform or base of the carriage, extend rearwardly while the springs on the inner or inboard arm project forwardly relative to the carriage and are positioned between the rails of the road bed. The outer spring- .able ends of the pairs of springs 28 and 29 are connected by the links 30, see FIGS. 1 and 2. The supporting plates 32 are pivotally connected at 31 to these links 30, see FIG. 2. These plates 32 are provided with transversely projecting arms 33, see FIG. 1. It will be noted that the arms 33 on the inner supporting bar or plate 32 project outwardly while the arms 33 on the outer supporting plate projects inwardly; in other words, they both project toward the rail.

The yoke-like hangers 35 are pivotally connected at 34 to the ends of the hanger bars on opposite sides of the pivot 31 thereof. At their lower ends the hangers 35 are provided with strap-like hangers 37 secured thereto at 36, in the embodiment illustrated the hangers 37 are loops of flexible belting-like material Wrapped around the supporting pins 38 which project from the support members a 39 on the motor supporting plates ill. Mounted on each of these supporting plates 46 is a vibratory motor 41 and a depending tool support 42 which, as in the embodiment illustrated, has a double bladed tamping tool 43 rigidly mounted thereon. These supporting plates and tamping tools 43 may be designated as vibratory tamping units and with supporting connection to the springs 28 may be designated as a tamping unit assembly.

With this arrangement, one tamping unit assembly is arranged so that it operates on the ballast side of or between the rails and forwardly of the platform or deck of the carriage, while the other vibratory unit is arranged so its blades operate in a rearwardly disposed relation to the tie under which the ballast is being tamped and at the outer sides of the rail. These blades are spaced. The mounting of these tamping units permits the blades and in fact causes the ballast to work under the tie and the rail supporting portion thereof as the tamper assemblies are lowered to operative position.

The vibratory units and tamping assembly are of the type more particularly described and claimed in Patent No. 2,795,198 issued June 11, 1957, to Corwill Jackson except that each tamper assembly has only one vibratory unit and one tool 43. Flexible belts 431 support the tamper assemblies and vibrator units in genermly horizontal position when the crosshead is raised to present the tools 43 to the road bed at the correct angle at the start of the work stroke.

Mounted over the left rear corner of the platform 1 is a power unit having a base 44 supporting an internal combustion engine 45 and an electric generator 46 drivingly connected thereto by the shaft '47. A belt or chain drive 48 extending transversely from the shaft 47 drives a hydraulic pump illustrated conventionally at 49. It is a feature of the invention that the power unit including the engine 45 and generator 46 can be removed and utilized for other work when not needed to operate a tamping machine. The output of the generator 46 is selectively directed to the vibratory motors 41 through electrical cables 50 and is under the control of a switch conventionally illustrated at 51.

Mounted on the platform ll forwardly of the power unit is a tank 52 constituting a reservoir for hydraulic fluid for the pump 49. Mounted on the left side of the platform and in generally balancing relation to the reservoir 52 is a fuel tank 53 for fuel for the engine 45. Mounted generally in the center of the platform 1 is an upright controlpedestal 54 having a head control lever 55 and a carriage drive control lever 56 mounted thereon. The levers 55 and 56 are connected to and considered as part of the control valves to be described in greater detail presently. Also mounted on the side of the pedestal 54 is a manual shut off valve 57 regulating the flow of hydraulic fluid from the pump 49 through a conduit 58 to a second and short hydraulic cylinder 59 mounted on the underside of the platform at approximately the center of 'balance of the entire machine. The cylinder 59 carries a ram or plunger 60 which can be extended downwardly into lifting engagement with the left rail to lift the entire machine off the rails. With the machine approximately balanced on the ram 6th it is a simple matter for an operator to grasp the handle 61 or 62 to balance the machine and rotate it 90 from the rails of the road bed so that setoif bars or tracks can be placed temporarily under the wheels 3 to roll the machine off of the main line.

The operators seat 63 is positioned to face laterally of the machine and toward the control pedestal 54 and the valves 55 and 56. From this position the operator can easily view the positions and operations of the tamping tools and control their upward and downward motion by means of the valve 55. When the crosshead is raised at the end of a tamping operation the carriage control valve 56 is actuated to advance the carriage along the rails either forwardly or rearwardly.

As is more clearly illustrated in the piping diagram in FIG. 4 the valve 55 selectively controls the admission of fluid under pressure [to the conduit 64 connected to the bottom of the cylinder 12 or the conduit 65 connected to .the top of the cylinder 12 to either raise the crosshead and the vibrating units or force them downwardly into the road bed. The conduit 58 to the ram operating cylinder 59 is supplied from the conduit 64 with a return passage to the conduit 65 so that the ram 60 will automatically be raised whenever the crosshead 15 is lowered. The valve 56 selectively admits fluid through the conduits 66 or 67 to reversely drive the hydraulic motor 9.

With particular reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 it is pointed out that two of the tamping machines can be coupled in tandem with one machine reversed and connected by a coupling bar 68 so that the tamp-ing units of the two machines are in opposed relation with the tamping assemblies of one machine astride one rail '70 and the tamping assemblies of the other machine astride the other rail 71. By connecting the crosshead actuating conduits 64 and 65 of the two machines by removable connections indicated by the dotted lines at 72 and 73 in FIG. 4 a single operator seated on either seat 63 can view the operation of all tamping assemblies and control their raising and lowering by manipulating one of the valves 55. The associated valve 56 and one of the motors 9 is sufiicient to advance both machines from one tie to the next and both engines 45 and generator 46 can be left operating continuously so that one operator can operate two machines to tamp along both rails of a railway. If two operators are to be used on two machines in tandem, the interconnection 72-73 an be left off in which case one machine and operator can tow and control the movement along the track of both machines while each operator separately control-s the vertical actuation of the hamper on his machine.

The mounting of the tamping assemblies to operate along one rail only effects an economy in machinery for maintenance work only in that it is sometimes necessary to camp ballast under one end of a tie at one spot along one mail but not at the other as such conditions are common in railway upkeep. In such situations one tamper of.

a double hamper machine is idle a substantial portion of the time. With two machines of the invention operated separately it is possible to cover "all points on both rails of a road bed needing repair faster than with a double machine that must stop at all point needing repair at either rail.

I have illustrated and described my invention in a highly practical commercial embodiment. I have not attempted to illustrate and describe other embodiments or adaptations which I contemplate as it is believed that this disclosure will enable those skilled in the art to embody or adapt the same as may be desired.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A ballast tamping machine comprising a carriage including a carriage body member and supporting wheels therefor gauged to travel on the rails of 'a railway track, said body member including a relatively narrow projecting portion disposed above one of the nails on which the carriage is traveling, one of the carriage wheels being disposed under said projecting portion adjacent the outer end thereof, upright ways mounted on said projecting portion of said carriage body member in laterally spaced relation to each other and with one at each side of the vertical plane of said wheel, a crosshead slidably mounted on said Ways and having arms projecting oppositely and laterally therefrom and relative to said projecting portion of said carriage body member, means for raising and lowering said crosshead, ballast tamper support members mounted on said crosshead arms to project oppositely therefrom, ballast tamper units including tamper blades trnounted on said ballast support members and disposed one at each side of said projecting portion of said body member, said ballast tamper units being independently and swingably supported on said support members an including :means for vibrating the blades at high frequency, driving means for said carriage, power means for operating said crosshead on said ways, control means for said carriage driving means and for said crosshead operating means, and an operators seat disposed on said carriage to face transversely of the track on which the carriage is traveling and positioned so that the operator seated thereon may view a portion of the track on which the carriage is traveling and associated ties to facilitate the positioning of the tamper units relative to selected ties and also the tampers to facilitate the positioning and viewing the operation thereof on ballast associated with a selected tie, the tamping unit nearest the operators sea-t being disposed iforwardly relative to said projecting portion of said carriage body member and the remote tamping unit being disposed at the side thereof opposite the operators seat.

2. A ballast tamping machine comprising a carriage including a carriage body member and supporting wheels therefor gauged to travel on the rails of a railway track, said body member including a relatively narrow projecting portion disposed above one of the rails on which the carriage is traveling, upright ways mounted on said projecting portion of said carriage body member in laterally spaced relation to each other, a crosshead slidably mounted on said ways and having arms projecting oppositely and laterally therefrom and relative to said projecting portion of said carriage body member, means for raising and lowering said crosshead, ballast tamper support members mounted on said crosshead arms to project oppositely therefrom, ballast tamper units including tamper blades mounted on said ballast support members and disposed one at each side of said projecting portion of said body member, said ballast tamper units being independently and swingably supported on said support members and including means for vibrating the blades at high frequency, driving means for said carriage, power means for operating said crosshead on said ways, control means for said carriage driving means and for said crosshead operating means, and an operators seat disposed on said carriage to face transversely of the track on which the carriage is traveling and positioned so that the operator seated thereon may view a portion of the track on which the carriage is traveling and associated ties to facilitate the positioning of the tamper units relative to selected ties and also the tampers to facilitate the positioning and viewing the operation thereof on ballast associated with a selected tie, the tamping unit nearest the operators seat being disposed forwardly relative to said projecting portion of said carriage body member and the remote tamping unit being disposed at the side thereof opposite the operators seat.

3. A ballast tamping machine comprising a carriage including a carriage body member and supporting wheels therefor gauged to travel on the rails of a railway track, said body member including a forwardly projecting portion disposed above one of the rails on which the carriage is traveling, one of the carriage wheels being disposed under said projecting portion, upright ways mounted on said projecting portion of said carriage body member in laterally spaced relation to each other, a crosshead slidably mounted on said ways, manually controlled means for raising and lowering said crosshead, ballast tamper units including tamper blades mounted on said ballast support members and disposed one at each side of said projecting portion of said body member, said ballast tamper units being independently and swingably supported on said support members and including means for vibrating the blades at high frequency, driving means for said carriage, power means for opera-ting said crosshead on said ways, control means for said carriage driving means and for said crosshead operating means, and an operators seat disposed on said carriage to face transversely of the track on which the carriage is traveling and positioned so that the operator seated thereon may view a portion of the track on which the carriage is traveling and ties associated therewith to facilitate the positioning of the tamper units relative to selected ties and also view the tampers to facilitate the positioning thereof and viewing the operation thereof on the ballast, the tamping unit nearest the operators seat being disposed forwardly relative to said projecting portion of said carriage body member and the remote tamping unit being disposed at the side thereof opposite the operators seat.

4. A ballast tamping machine comprising a carriage including a carriage body member and supporting wheels therefor gauged to travel on the rails of a railway track, said body member including a forwardly projecting portion disposed above one of the rails on which the carriage is traveling, one of the carriage wheels being disposed under said projecting portion, upright ways mounted on said projecting portion of said carriage body member in laterally spaced relation to each other, a crosshead slidably mounted on said ways, manually controlled means for raising and lowering said crosshead, ballast tamper units including tamper blades mounted on said ballast support members and disposed one at each side of said projecting portion of said body member, said ballast tamper units being independently and swingably supported on said support members and including means for vibrating the blades at high frequency, driving means for said carriage, power means for operating said crosshead on said ways, control means for said carriage driving means and for said crosshead operating means, and an operators seat disposed on said carriage to face transversely of the track on which the carriage is traveling and positioned so that the operator seated thereon may View a portion of the track on which the carriage is traveling and ties associated therewith to facilitate the positioning of the tamper units relative to selected ties and also view the t-ampers to facilitate the positioning thereof and viewing the operation thereof on the ballast.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,052,943 Scheuchzer Sept. 1, 1936 2,795,198 Jackson June 11, 1957 2,843,055 Hursh et al. July 15, 1958 2,847,943 Plasser et al. Aug. 19, 1958 2,855,862 Kind Oct. 14, 1958 OTHER REFERENCES Pages 84 and 85, Railway Track and Structures, September 1957. 

1. A BALLAST TAMPING MACHING COMPRISING A CARRIAGE INCLUDING A CARRIAGE BODY MEMBER AND SUPPORTING WHEELS THEREFOR GAUGED TO TRAVEL ON THE RAILS OF A RAILWAY TRACK, SAID BODY MEMBER INCLUDING A RELATIVELY NARROW PROJECTING PORTION DISPOSED ABOVE ONE OF THE RAILS ON WHICH THE CARRIAGE IS TRAVELLING, ONE OF THE CARRIAGE WHEELS BEING DISPOSED UNDER SAID PROJECTING PORTION ADJACENT THE OUTER END THEREOF, UPRIGHT WAYS MOUNTED ON SAID PROJECTING PORTION OF SAID CARRIAGE BODY MEMBER IN LATERALLY SPACED RELATION TO EACH OTHER AND WITH ONE AT EACH SIDE OF THE VERTICAL PLANE OF SAID WHEEL, A CROSSHEAD SLIDABLY MOUNTED ON SAID WAYS AND HAVING ARMS PROJECTING OPPOSITELY AND LATERALLY THEREFROM AND RELATIVE TO SAID PROJECTING PORTION OF SAID CARRIAGE BODY MEMBER, MEANS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING SAID CROSSHEAD, BALLAST TAMPER SUPPORT MEMBERS MOUNTED ON SAID CROSSHEAD ARMS TO PROJECT OPPOSITELY THEREFROM, BALLAST TAMPER UNITS INCLUDING TAMPER BLADES MOUNTED ON SAID BALLAST SUPPORT MEMBERS AND DISPOSED ONE AT EACH SIDE OF SAID PROJECTING PORTION OF SAID BODY MEMBER, SAID BALLAST TAMPER UNITS BEING INDEPENDENTLY 